The following U.S. patent is incorporated herein by reference in their entireties:
U.S. Pat. No. 7,435,202 discloses that in an elliptical step exercise apparatus distance traveled can be approximated by determining the portion of the ellipse traversed by a foot pedal where the user applies force to the pedal. This portion can be considered equivalent to the amount of foot travel on a treadmill and modified as a function of speed to simulate the gait of a user at various speeds so as to provide an approximation of the distance traveled by a user as if he were running on a treadmill. This process can be further modified for use with an elliptical exercise apparatus where the stride length can be changed such that the simulated distance will be increased with increased stride length.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,476,181 discloses exercise apparatus, including treadmills having an endless loop belt driven by an electric motor to exercise the user, has a dual function common stop switch assembly at a singular location on a control console, which assembly has first and second switches each actuatable separately from each other to independently stop the exercise movement member such as a treadbelt. The construction eliminates separately located stop switches.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,846,070 discloses a microprocessor based exercise treadmill control system which includes various features to enhance user operation. These features include programs operative to: permit a set of user controls to cause the treadmill to initially operate at predetermined speeds; permit the user to design custom workouts; permit the user to switch between workout programs while the treadmill is in operation; and perform an automatic cooldown program where the duration of the cooldown is a function of the duration of the workout or the user's heart rate. The features also include a stop program responsive to a detector for automatically stopping the treadmill when a user is no longer on the treadmill and a frame tag module attached to the treadmill frame having a non-volatile memory for storing treadmill configuration, and operational and maintenance data. Another included feature is the ability to display the amount of time a user spends in a heart rate zone.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2008/0242511 discloses user interface methods and an apparatus for controlling exercise apparatus. An example user interface includes an exercise parameter input and an indicator associated with the exercise parameter input, and a control unit to activate the indicator in response to a training routine to prompt a user of the exercise apparatus to adjust an operation of the exercise apparatus via the exercise parameter input.